The Edinburgh Tour Guide
Rosslyn Chapel is a small fifteenth-century building in a village seven miles south of Edinburgh, covered inside and out in carved stone, and it has been one of Scotland's busiest attractions since a novel and a film sent the world looking for the Holy Grail in it. Before you go, there is one thing worth knowing that almost nobody puts near the top of the page.
You cannot take photographs inside. Not discouraged: not permitted, and you agree to it when you buy the ticket. Budget £12 for an adult, take the Lothian 37 from Princes Street, and ask to turn your ticket into an annual pass on the way out, because the Trust does that for free.
Adult
£12.00
Your slot
90 minutes
Photos inside
Not allowed
Photography inside is not permitted, and that is the headline
On its own ticketing page, in a block of small print about ticket types, the Rosslyn Chapel Trust says this:
The Trust, on its own ticketing page
Please note that photography & filming inside the Chapel is not permitted. By purchasing tickets you agree to adhere to these regulations.
Think about who visits this building. The entire draw is the stonework: the Apprentice Pillar, the green men, the carvings people have spent two centuries arguing about. The visitors are there because of a thriller about decoding symbols. And you cannot take a single picture of any of it.
That is not an unreasonable rule for a working church and a conservation project, and we are not complaining about it. We are saying it should be the first line of every page about Rosslyn Chapel and it is nowhere near the first line of any of them. If you were planning to photograph the carvings, your plan does not work, and it is better to learn that now than at the door.
Here is the sideways proof, and it is the most convincing thing we found all day. Wikimedia Commons keeps a category for Rosslyn Chapel. It holds fifty files, and every usable one is an exterior: walls, pinnacles, gargoyles, the roof from a drone. For one of the most photographed buildings in Scotland, the inside is simply missing from the public record. The ban is visible in the absence.
What it costs, and why you will find three different prices
This one took some untangling, because the conflicting numbers are not on rival blogs. They are on the chapel's own website.
| Where it says so | Adult | Page last updated |
|---|---|---|
| Official admission page | £12.00 | 13 July 2026 |
| Official booking page, in its search listing | £10.50 | 2 September 2025 |
| The Trust's Facebook page | £13.00 | Undated |
Budget £12. The reasoning is the modification dates rather than a guess: the page carrying £12 was updated three months ago, the page still advertising £10.50 has not been touched in over a year. We are showing you the dates so you can check the logic rather than take our word for it, and we would still look at the total before you pay.
The rest of the price list, from the admission page:
- Reduced, £10.00, for anyone 65 or over, registered disabled, unemployed, a student in education, Armed Forces or a Young Scot cardholder. Proof may be requested.
- Children 17 and under, free, in a family group, and they can only enter with somebody over 18.
- Carers go free, and there are also rates for ASVA pass holders and STGA registered guides.
- If you live in an EH25 postcode, the whole site is free, on application with a passport photo.
Your Historic Scotland card will not work here
The chapel states it twice on its own booking page: membership cards from Historic Scotland, National Trust for Scotland or equivalent organisations do not apply here
. Rosslyn Chapel is privately owned by a registered charity and sits outside those schemes. Worth flagging because our Edinburgh Castle guide walks you through Explorer Pass arithmetic, and this is the place that arithmetic does not reach. Note also that they take debit and credit cards but not American Express or Maestro.
Is half a day worth it, and should you book a tour?
Independently, a visit costs about £17 and takes half a day: £12 admission plus a couple of pounds of bus each way, with roughly two hours of travelling and a 90-minute slot in the middle. That is a cheap outing by Edinburgh standards.
The tours start at £46 and run for eight hours or more, and it is worth being clear about what that buys, because it is not the journey to Roslin. A bus does that for pocket change. What you are paying for is everything else they bolt on: the Scottish Borders, a distillery, Stirling Castle. If you want that day, the tour is a sensible way to get it. If you want the chapel, take the 37.
Rosslyn Chapel, the Borders and Glenkinchie Distillery
Eight hours at £5.75 an hour, the lowest rate of any Rosslyn tour we found. Glenkinchie is the Lowland distillery nearest Edinburgh, so this is the one that pairs with a whisky day.
Rosslyn Chapel and the Scottish Borders, Small Group
Six and three quarter hours, small group, and the Da Vinci Code itinerary by name. Four times the review base of the one beside it, at £9.64 an hour.
Note that both of them, and every other Rosslyn tour on the platform, run six and a half to nine hours for a chapel you spend ninety minutes inside. That ratio is the clearest argument for doing it yourself if the chapel is what you came for.
Getting there: the 37 bus, and the Uber that will not bring you back
The chapel is seven miles south of the city centre, in the village of Roslin, and its own getting-here page is unusually good. The short version:
| How | Time | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Lothian bus 37 | 45 to 60 min | From Princes Street (shop side) or North Bridge. The front must say Penicuik or Deanburn via Roslin. Get off at the Original Rosslyn Hotel |
| Taxi | About 40 min | £30 to £40 each way |
| Uber | About 40 min | Out only. They do not pick up from Roslin |
| Train | 18 min + 30 min | Borders Railway to Eskbank, then a bus from Muirpark. Slower than the direct 37 |
| Car | — | Free parking on site, EV charging point, EH25 9PU |
Two of those rows are traps. The first is the bus: not every 37 runs via Roslin, so read the front of it or ask the driver, which is the chapel's own advice. The second is worse. You can take an Uber out and you cannot take one back, because they do not pick up there. Seven miles from Edinburgh with no return booked is a bad afternoon. Take the 37 both ways, or save a local number first: the chapel lists Dalkeith Taxis on 0131 654 1212.
On fares, the chapel quotes £2.40 single and £6.00 for a day ticket, though it does so in the paragraph about the East Coast Buses 140 from Dalkeith and Musselburgh rather than about the 37, so check the Lothian fare for your own journey. Either way the bus is small change next to a £30 taxi.
Ask for the annual pass, because it is free
This is the strangest thing on the chapel's website and it is stated twice, in two different places, in plain language.
Their words, on two separate pages
Purchase an annual pass for the same price as a single visit and come back and see us as many times as you like!
There is no additional charge to change your day ticket into a year's pass so please ask for more details when you visit.
Read that second one again. You buy a £12 day ticket, you ask at the desk, and it becomes a twelve-month pass at no extra cost. The day ticket is not a cheaper option than the annual pass; it is the same price for strictly less.
For a visitor passing through once, that may be worth nothing. For anyone living in Scotland, anyone back within a year, or anyone who will have friends to show around, it is the easiest saving on this site. You have to ask, because it does not happen automatically, and that is the whole catch.
What the 90 minutes actually gives you
Visits are sold as 90-minute self-guided slots with capacity capped at 180 visitors. Inside that window:
- A short history presentation from one of the guides, 30 minutes into the session. It is included in the admission price and it is the only guided element, so turning up at the start of your slot rather than drifting in late is the difference between getting it and missing it.
- A free information leaflet in fifteen languages, including Czech, Hungarian, Japanese, Mandarin, Slovak, Swedish and Ukrainian, which is a remarkable list for a village chapel.
- BSL and audio description handsets on request, in limited numbers.
- The visitor centre, with the interpretation, a coffee shop and the gift shop.
Two booking notes that catch people out. If you are booking from outside the UK, the chapel warns you to switch the timezone in the booking box to London, or you will reserve the wrong slot. And groups of 15 or more cannot book online at all: you have to phone 0131 440 2159 or email, and coach parking is not guaranteed for groups that book online anyway.
As for the Grail, the Templars and the rest of it, that is the reason half the visitors are there and it is not something we are going to adjudicate. What is checkable is the effect: a novel and a film turned a small Midlothian chapel into an attraction with timed entry and a 180-person cap. Go for the carving, which is extraordinary by every account, and treat the symbology as the floor show.
Quick answers
Can you take photos inside Rosslyn Chapel?
No. The Rosslyn Chapel Trust states on its own ticketing page that photography and filming inside the Chapel are not permitted, and that by purchasing tickets you agree to adhere to that. It is the single most useful thing to know before you travel, because the carvings are the entire reason to go. You can photograph the exterior and the grounds freely. If you want proof of how firmly this is enforced, look at Wikimedia Commons: its Rosslyn Chapel category runs to 50 files and the usable ones are all exteriors.
How much is Rosslyn Chapel admission?
£12.00 for an adult aged 18 to 64, and £10.00 reduced for anyone 65 or over, registered disabled, unemployed, a student, Armed Forces or a Young Scot cardholder, with proof possibly requested. Children aged 17 and under are free in a family group, though they must be with an adult over 18. You will see other numbers: the chapel’s own booking page still advertises £10.50 in its search listing, but that page has not been updated since September 2025 while the admission page was updated in July 2026. Their Facebook page says £13. Take £12 as the one to budget for and check at the point of booking.
Is the Rosslyn Chapel annual pass worth it?
It is not a question of worth, it is free money. The Trust says an annual pass costs the same as a single visit, and that there is no additional charge to change your day ticket into a year’s pass, so you simply ask when you are there. If there is any chance at all that you or visiting friends will come back within twelve months, the day ticket is the worse version of the same purchase.
How do you get to Rosslyn Chapel from Edinburgh?
Take the Lothian service 37 from Princes Street (shop side) or North Bridge, and check that the front of the bus says Penicuik or Deanburn via Roslin, because not every 37 goes that way. The journey takes 45 to 60 minutes and the chapel is a few minutes’ walk from the stop at the Original Rosslyn Hotel. A taxi from the city centre takes about 40 minutes and costs £30 to £40 each way. The chapel is seven miles south of the city centre and there is free parking on site.
Can you get an Uber to Rosslyn Chapel?
You can get one there and not back. The chapel says so itself: Uber will take you out from Edinburgh city centre, but they do not pick up from Roslin, so you have to arrange another way home. Seven miles out, that matters. Either take the 37 both ways, or save the number of a local taxi firm before you go. The chapel lists Dalkeith Taxis on 0131 654 1212 among others.
Does a Historic Scotland or National Trust card get you in?
No, and the chapel states it twice on its booking page: membership cards from Historic Scotland, the National Trust for Scotland or equivalent organisations do not apply. Rosslyn Chapel is privately owned and run by the Rosslyn Chapel Trust, a registered charity, so it sits outside those schemes entirely. If you bought an Explorer Pass for Edinburgh Castle and assumed it travelled, it does not travel here.
How long do you get at Rosslyn Chapel?
Each visit is a 90-minute self-guided slot, with capacity capped at 180 visitors, and a short history presentation from one of the guides 30 minutes into the session. That talk is included in the admission price and it is the only guided element, so arriving at the start of your slot rather than halfway through it matters more here than at most attractions. A free information leaflet is available in fifteen languages.
Is Rosslyn Chapel worth visiting?
For the carvings, yes, if you accept that you cannot photograph them and that the building is small. Doing it independently costs about £17 including the bus both ways and takes half a day. The organised tours start around £46, which is not the price of getting to Roslin: it is the price of the Scottish Borders, a distillery or Stirling Castle bolted onto the same outing.
About this guide
Written by Diego Fresno, Independent travel writer and researcher. Every fact on this page comes from the Rosslyn Chapel Trust's own website, read on 5 October 2026: the admission page for prices and concessions, the ticket information page for the photography ban, the 90-minute slots, the 180 capacity and the guide's talk, the booking page for the annual pass upgrade and the Historic Scotland exclusion, and the getting-here page for the bus, the taxi fares and the Uber warning. Where the site contradicts itself on price, the page shows you the modification dates of the two pages rather than simply picking one. Deliberately not claimed: a Lothian 37 fare, because the £2.40 single the chapel quotes appears in its paragraph about a different bus; anything about the Templars, the Grail or what the carvings mean, because that is contested and we have not earned a view; and whether 90 minutes is the right amount of time, because we have not been. Tour prices and review counts came from a live Viator search in GBP the same day. This page carries affiliate links, and its first recommendation is a £12 ticket and a bus fare that we earn nothing from. Verified: August 2026. About the author →